The Inaugural Georgia Tech WCC Forum

Georgia Tech launched the new Wearable Computing Center, a research hub for inter-disciplinary wearables research and applications, this past June and the group held its first event yesterday, November 11, the WCC Forum.

The vast range of computing research and applications can sometimes make it difficult for likeminded people, whether in industry, academia or elsewhere, to find each other. Applied Sports Science has that problem. The sensors, the data technologies and similarity to consumer health applications all depend on computing, but it can be challenging to describe the tasks and the interfaces in a way that can be broadly understood, something that holds back widespread, effective collaboration and technology development. The WCC, with its Forum and its Industrial Partners program, is offering to be the home base the field needs.

The mostly informal program of the WCC Forum was ideal to start building the relationships that will eventually create the hub that’s needed not just by sports but by all the groups that will benefit from wearable computing technology. Sports had a noticeable presence at the Forum. adidas, US Soccer Federation, Russell Athletic apparel, jawbone all attended. But it was also useful that other application domains were on hand, groups like fashion, quantified self and functional clothing for industry and for professionals. It quickly became clear they all share many of the same challenges with integrating technologies, managing data and inventing user-friendly interfaces and experiences.

It can be easy for technologists working in sports science to operate in a bubble, and similar bubbles exist in the other application domains. The Forum’s open discussion effectively brought everyone in attendance out of their respective bubble spaces. The opportunity to consider issues shared by everyone working on wearable technology helped, I think, when people working in sports engaged each other in narrower subjects of mutual interest. And the plentiful networking opportunities made it easy to have those conversations.

WCC plans to hold the Forum annually. There were over 100 attendees at the inaugural event and I can easily see that number doubling for next year. There is talk of a sports-specific workshop in the interim. And the Center is actively building its roster of Industry Partners. Contact Maribeth Gandy and Clint Ziegler to find out more, http://wcc.gatech.edu.

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